The station consists of a 55-foot tall square tower and a separate, two-story keeper’s residence, both built of New England granite and local bricks and lumber. Later on, a connecting annex was added between the lighthouse and the residence. The domed roof above the ten-sided, cast-iron lantern room sported decorative rainspouts shaped like gargoyle heads. Sinclair reported the total cost of the project as $12,212. The first optic was a revolving third-order Fresnel lens, manufactured by L. Sautter & Company, which showed a fixed white light at a focal plane of 110 feet above sea level. The original light source was a single whale-oil lamp.

In 1871, the station underwent major renovations. The brickwork of the tower and dwelling was found to be badly decayed, and was completely covered with a new layer of mortar. Extra rooms were built for the assistant keeper and for storage. A cast-iron lantern deck was installed atop the tower, and the revolving lens was replaced by a fixed lens of the same order.